dariantravels

 THE RETURN OF SIERRAROSE

ESCAPE FROM VENNA

While preparations are underway in the city for the fair we will soon inaugurate on the occasion of the festival of Se-Var, the annual fair held on the winter solstice, when day defeats night and the sun provides ever more light day after day.

While the stalls and booths of the various Castes and the many merchants who have come to the city are being prepared, I set up two newsstands on the main avenue, one opposite Lady Luelar's barbershop. Our newspaper is doing very well, and sales are improving day by day. With the consent of Administrator Sir Pettigrew, I plan to add more copies, hoping to get a little help by making sure everyone knows where to get them. Of course, at the fair, newspapers are free for everyone.

sir Argos

Suddenly, a guard came running, announcing the arrival of a caravan from the Silverstone Oasis, where I knew Sir Yuroki lived with his companion, Lady Sabayna, and their daughter, Sierra Rose. The young woman I had first courted in Port Victoria, but she had followed her family first to the Cartassa Oasis and then to their Silverstone Oasis.

I dropped everything and ran to the gate where the caravan was completing its entry formalities at the guardhouse. They would then wait to meet the leader of the Traders and finally enter the city. Although Venna was a tourist destination, anyone could enter freely as long as they handed over their weapons to the guards. I descended the grand staircase, scanning the crowd, trying to recognize my beloved Sierra among them, and finally I saw her. She ran toward me and literally leaped upon me, breaking every law on female freedom on the planet.

lady Luelar

We hugged and stayed that way for a long time until their mother, Lady Sabayna, came to greet us. Lady Sabayna was a great perfumer, and I had often met her on my travels at fairs, even though her skin was brown and burned by the Thahari sun.

lady Sierra

I didn't see Sir Yuroki with them, and when I asked where he was, they told me he had remained in the ruins of the oasis, after the destruction by the Torvie warriors who lately have been attacking cities and oases, arriving on their Tarls, scaling walls and fences, and destroying and killing everything in their path. Yuriki, along with trusted men, gathered everything they could. He would seek out a new, deserted, more sheltered oasis, perhaps somewhere far from the known trails, and repopulate that new oasis. The women had been sent to a nearby city and placed in the Arem for safekeeping.

We climbed the long staircase to the square, and then sat on the bench in the flowerbed in the garden in front of the Scribes' Palace. We told each other about our past, our love, and our forced separation, until their mother joined us. I took them around the squares and along the avenue where the stalls were lined up on both sides of the avenue. Then I took them to the Scribes' Palace, introducing them first to Lady Zoye, then to Lady Tenka. Lady Tenka was with us in Port Victoria, running the large perfumery on the harbor, and here in Venice she worked hard to find a stall to rent and sell her wonderful products. Although Eva also sells perfumes, Lady Tenka sells various bath and beauty products. I must confess that I also bought soaps from her, which I put in my clothes' cases to perfume them.

lady Sabayna

   Sierra announced that she spoke with her mother and received permission to stay and live with me in Venna. After our engagement period, which usually lasts four Mani Gor (weeks), we will celebrate our companionship ceremony, hoping that her father, Sir Yuroki, will arrive in the meantime.

Meanwhile, I sent a message to Sir Argos, who is L'ubar and the Chief Scribe, to discuss the possibility of Sierra and I taking up a position with the Scribe Caste. However, with preparations for the blessing of the Temple, the preparation of the Caste stall with all the arrivals, and the people around seeking news, we have postponed the meeting, but I hope she can live here with us.

The fair, as usual, was very chaotic, with people arriving from all over. Many Pani citizens came from the foot of the Sardar Mountains to visit the new museum dedicated to Pani art. Lady Luelar was a Pani descendant and was well-known and respected in the city of Venna for her skill as a weaver and ladies' hairdresser.

On the last day, the Temple was inaugurated. An Initiate came for the blessing. The entire city was present and moved. When it was all over and the last merchant had left with his goods, a caravan arrived in the city. They weren't merchants or desert folk, but well-dressed gentlemen, and one was wearing a blue suit. I wanted to go meet him, but something told me he would never be there.a friend, I sat down as usual at the inn table on the stairs and waited, I clearly saw Sir Argos, who was going towards him and greeting him with great effusion, I recognized in that man dressed in blue an old Magistrate student of mine, I stood up and headed towards them, when I was close to them Argos introduced himself saying that he would be the new Head of the Magistrates, a role that I had held until that moment, and that he clearly gave to his friend, I remained silent, I was very disappointed and offended, in the meantime Yuroki arrived in the city, took the family and left for the new Oasis he had rebuilt, Sierra I had lost again, but I was too humiliated at that moment, I packed my trunks and left with the first caravan towards Thassa, I would find another city to live.

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